Function Testing Tool Workshop

 

On Sunday prior to the agile 2009 Conference, the third agile Alliance Function Testing seminar was held. Anyone interested in improving existing functional testing tools (relative to unit testing) can participate in the open space agenda. Participants included the creators and contributors of the following tools: Selenium, SWAT, cucumber, webtest, robotframework, and twist.

 

 

Because of the open space format, the outline and schedule of the Meeting were decided on site, and there were 3 time stamps and 4 venues this year, so 12 agenda events could be held.

Lisa cripin is a co-author of agile testing. In her record, the first agenda is a quick demonstration of multiple tools, which are not as well-known as Selenium and watir, including: canoo webtest, twist, cucumber, robot framework, and SWAT. Lisa said: "I was deeply impressed by the robot framework. This is an open-source tool. The developer is Pekka KL ärck. It is very flexible. The table format is very similar to fitnesse, but there is only one type. You can complete keyword-driven, data-driven, or even BDD-style tests. It can also use command line parameters to allow you to call internal and external libraries such as swing ....... SWAT has aroused great interest. No one has ever seen it before. I think people are particularly impressed with its IDE ."

Paul king, a contributor to webtest and groovy, proposed: "develop more mixing and matching testing frameworks, drivers, and utilities. We all agree that there are enough testing tools and developers should focus on solving new problems ."

On the agenda for another morning, Matt Wynne, Richard Lawrence, asak helles ø y and I discussed the work to be done to Transplant Cucumber to the. NET platform. The results show that as long as the cucumber user is ready to run the test in ruby, if cucumber developers can find a simple way to communicate with the test application, then cucumber and. net. People have proposed a method similar to fitnesse slim. At the end of the agenda, Matt and Richard started to complete the solution.

In last year's agenda, we agreed to use documents to record existing tools, but they were not completed. This year, Gerard meszaros created a workbook (for editing permission, contact the author: Mark at mlevison dot com). The content is based on the demo he saw in the morning. In an afternoon agenda, a group of people gathered and added more tools to the table. As of today, the tools they recorded in the table include: SWAT, cucumber, webtest, robotframework, twist, testswarm, jbehave, fit, fitnesse, fitnesseslim, ultifit, watir, watin, Abbot, fest, white, Sahi, and Sahi-java. We can note that selenium is not recorded.

Later in the afternoon, people held a discussion on recording and playback tools like selenium IDE. Lisa cripin believes that the capture/playback tool "is very helpful for learning new tools, and can also help people debug test scripts, or find the correct statements that should be used in a test. However, people should not simply use capture/playback tools, otherwise they will encounter problems ." Jason Huggins, a developer of selenium, explains that he is also confused about the versatility of selenium IDE (because it is just a recording/playback tool ). This tool was originally used to train "beginners", just like "pilots who just learned to fly should start from the training machine. Pilots can learn a lot from training planes, but they still need to fly real planes ." In order to make the difference more obvious, people suggest (from Mike Longin's notes ):

• Change the name of selenium ide To selenium trainer, so that recording is not the end point of automation.
• Create a complex table on the recorder. When the recording content is too complex, tell people: Maybe we should learn some new automated testing technologies.

Mike responded to Paul's comment in this way: "We already have countless drivers, frameworks, and runners. Now we may be looking for some integration technologies, try to use these great tools and combine them."

Pekka KL ärck expressed gratitude to jennitta Andrea and Elisabeth Hendrickson for organizing this year's seminar.

 

Source: http://www.infoq.com/cn/news/2009/09/functional-test-tools

AuthorMark Levison TranslatorZheng Ke

Functional Test Tools Workshop

PostedMark LevisonOn Sep 17,200 9

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The 3rd workshop of the agile Alliance functional testing tools group was held the Sunday before agile2009. the open space session was open to anyone interested in advancing the state of the art with functional (vs Unit) test Tools. among others, the maid were the creators of and contributors to: Selenium, SWAT, cucumber, webtest, robotframework and twist.

As an open space, the agenda and sessions are created on the fly-this year there were 3 time slots and 4 locations allowing for up 12 sessions.

According to Lisa cripin, co-author of agile testing, the first session was a series of lightening talks demoing various tools that aren't as well known as Selenium and watir: canoo webtest, twist, cucumber, robot framework and SWAT. lisa says: "I was impressed by robot framework, an open source tool whose developer is Pekka KL ärck. it has a lot of flexibility. it uses a tabular format similar Fitnesse partition t there is only one type of table. you can do Keyword Driven, data driven and even BDD style tests. it also takes command line arguments. it lets you have internal and external libraries such as swing... There was a lot of interest in SWAT, nobody had seen it before and I think they were participant ularly impressed by the IDE ."

Paul king, webtest and groovy contributor, proposed: "doing more mixing and matching of testing frameworks/Drivers/utilities/tools. he had a nice graphic showing what is available. we all agreed there are enough test runners, and the developer community shoshould focus on solving new problems"

In another morning session, Matt Wynne, Richard Lawrence, asak helles ø y and this reporter discussed what wocould be required to port cucumber. net. as it turns out, as long as users are prepared to run the cucumber test run under Ruby then creating. net Bindings for cucumber is relatively simple if the cucumber developers can find an simple way of communicating with the test application. a model similar to the fitnesse slim approach was proposed. by the end of the session Matt and Richard started work on the solution.

In last years session it was agreed that we shoshould document the existing tools in this space but the effort floundered. this year, Gerard meszaros created a spreadsheet (contact this reporter Mark at mlevison dot com for editing access) based on what he saw in the morning demos. in one of the afternoon sessions a group got together and helped fill in more tools in the spreadsheet-as of today they spreadsheet documents ents: SWAT, cucumber, webtest, robotframework, twist, testswarm, jbehave, fit, fitnesse, fitnesseslim, ultifit, watir, watin, Abbot, fest, white, Sahi and Sahi-java. notably missing are notes about selenium.

In the late afternoon there was a discussion around the role of record and playback tools such as the selenium ide. lisa cripin thinks that capture/playback Tools "can be a great way to help Learn a new tool, and also can be helpful in debugging test scripts or figuring out the right statements to use in a particle test. however, people shouldn't get bogged down in only using capture/playback ". jason Huggins, selenium developer, explained that he is troubled by the general use of the selenium IDE (really just a record/playback tool ). it was originally intended as a "little 'trainer 'airplane that jet pilots train on first. the pilots can learn a lot from the trainer, but eventually they have to move up to a real jet. "suggestions for making this distinction more clear sorted ded (notes from Mike Longin ):

• Rename selenium ide To selenium trainer to help promote the idea that recording really isn't the end all for Automation
• Create some kind of complexity meter on the recorder that shows when your recording is getting so complex that maybe its time to learn new automation techniques

Mike echoes Paul's comment "We have numerous drivers, frameworks, and runners out there and now maybe is the time to start looking at integration techniques. how do we take all of these great tools and start combining them."

Pekka KL ärck thanked jennitta Andrea and elis?hendrickson for organizing the workshop again this year.

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